Mark Brumley Answers Self-Appointed Cyber-Bishops

regarding YouCat:

I understand that some people like some books better than others–even catechetical books. So some people don’t care for YOUCAT. Some folks don’t like the graphics or the sidebars or the layout. Some people are wedded to an older style of catechism, such as the Baltimore Catechism. That’s fine. What’s more, someone may think this or that statement in YOUCAT (or, for that matter, the Catechism of the Catholic Church) might be better phrased, etc. No catechism is perfect, YOUCAT included. And sometimes faithful and orthodox Catholics can disagree about the best way to present topics, especially to young people. Ok. We got that. But it’s another thing altogether to claim that YOUCAT is doctrinally faulty or heretical. That is simply false. What’s more, people with pet theological peeves in areas in which the Church has given latitude shouldn’t accuse of infidelity or heterodoxy those who take a different stance on a particular position within that latitude. Some of the criticism of YOUCAT is just that sort of thing. YOUCAT has been reviewed by three Vatican offices, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It has the imprimatur of three episcopal conferences (Austrian, German, and Swiss), and the English edition has the imprimatur of the Archbishop of San Francisco. It was compiled under the direction of the primary editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And the Pope wrote the foreword, in which he states that it is his heartfelt desire that young people study YOUCAT. Those things don’t make YOUCAT perfect, but they support the view that those who want to “recall” YOUCAT, or who otherwise reject it for what they purport are matters of orthodoxy, are overreacting or are simply offbase.

Life’s too short. I’m just not seeing the need to get too worked up here.